Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist

Richard Dawkins addresses some of the greatest intellectual challenges of the 21st century in his wide-ranging collection of essays Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist.

The controversial author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and staunch atheist. Science in the Soul contains eight thematic sections, which all address, to some degree, Dawkins's defense of evolutionary theory and the scientific method itself against what he perceives as a dangerous devaluing of science by religious leaders. His writings vary from essays and lectures to works of satire, and they touch upon science as well as contemporary politics, culture and philosophy.

Dawkins's "passionate" tone slips into condescension rather easily--he describes some religious scholars as not having degrees from decent universities--and one wonders how far the author's polemics stray from the empirical domain of science. He exalts the "poetry" of science but offers little poetry, his prose often more stodgy than evocative. That's not to say Dawkins isn't a great thinker and conversationalist. His perspective can be devastatingly incisive. The best writing in the collection occurs in entries like "Fifty Years On: Killing the Soul?" and "Atheists for Jesus" in which he makes a strong case for secularism. In "The Dead Hand of Plato," he also drafts a compelling argument against essentialism, or what he calls the "gratuitously manufactured discontinuity in a continuous reality." Most importantly, Dawkins evinces the redeeming capacity of humans to contravene their own selfishly wired genes. "We are entitled to throw off the tyranny of the texts," he says, referring to both holy scripture and embedded DNA. In this way, Science in the Soul is thought provoking in both its moral and scientific attitudes. --Scott Neuffer, writer, poet, editor of trampset

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